I posted over in Road Warriors, I'm looking at a 1981 KZ1100...apparently needs some carb and clutch work, but otherwise seems to be in good shape visually. I'm not exactly rolling in the dough so the decision is turning out to be a tough one...

picked it up 3 yrs ago out of a tool shed, bike was a mess, rust dents etc. but mechanicaly not to bad. Stripped it down, re painted it back to factory, including decals, new rubber,and found a brand new Jardine exhaust sytem for it.I am the third owner, turns out i knew the original owner AND the salesman that sold in in January 1980!! both of whom were floored to see it in its restored state after 28 yrs. i got the bike with 9600 miles on it, bike now has 23K on it. I just picked up a ZZR1200 to keep the miles down on the KZ some. It was a blast restoring it and riding it. Am in the proccess of installing a Lockhart oil cooler on it too. Looking forward to spring to bring the beastie back to life for another yr. JT

here's a 78 kz650 i found. my neighbor got it on a trade. sat for a couple winters. this is how i found it. had a grab bag and with the original gauges showing 10*** on the tach. slowly coming together

Hey guys this is my first shaft drive bike. I need to take off the rear wheel to get some new rubber. How do I do it? Anyone know of a walk-thru? Looks to be a bit of a pain.

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Hey,
Welcome to the KZ club. Taking the rear wheel off is a sinch... put the bike on the center stand. Make sure the rear wheel is off the ground and side bags off. Remove axle nut. Slide axle out and remove caliper retainer bolt.

Pull caliper up and off the disk and let it hang off to the side. Take chrome dust cap off the right side of the wheel. Pull entire wheel to the right allowing it to drop down to the ground and roll back out the way.

Which, due to a buzzing hornet's nest of noise from the cam chain tensioner, got me into making tensioners for most all Kaws. I love the superbike look and the stone axe simplicity of the air cooled KZ based 550. Way too much fun.

If any of you do have tensioner issues, $30 cure. PM me or look up Krieger Cam Chain Tensioners. Kawasakis are NOT always THAT noisy. Both mind quieted down as have about 60 others.

Is that European ELR white? I do like the 1000, did they use that striping on the 1000? I'm not positive, but I think they did that on the earlier 75 Z1 900 in the states.

And this is my 1982 KZ1000J collected for 700 Euros with a bent fork and lot's of electrical gremlins, but by now (2 months later) she is already performing her daily duties (click on pix to see 'em full-size):